Roger Waters The Wall Live at Xcel Energy Center, 6/03/12

Roger Waters rebuilt The Wall again on Sunday night for his dedicated
legion of Minnesota fans, just to have the whole thing come crashing
spectacularly down once more.

Roughly a year and a half after treating
longtime fans to a live recreation of their legendary 1979 album, The Wall, at
the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Pink Floyd mastermind Waters
brought a slightly retooled (but mostly similar) tour back to the same
venue and delighted much of the same audience (13,000+) with a dazzling
combination of both sight and sound.

The Wall itself was massive, appropriately (given the production's brazen stance
against consumerism) stretching from one luxury box to another at the
opposite side of the arena. As the lights went out, flag-bearers with the
now infamous hammer logos gathered menacingly on the stage, as a giant
model plane flew from the back of the arena to crash into the right
corner of the wall, only to be engulfed in flames and explosions that
clearly got everyone's attention straight away.

The flag-bearers were lifted 20 feet above the stage as "In The
Flesh?" impressively kicked in. Waters was dressed ominously in a
leather trench coat, and seemed to relish singing the taunting lyrics of
the track to the gathered hordes. War casualties both past and present
were projected on the screens behind the band as well as on the wall itself
during "The Thin Ice," bringing a tragic current resonance to the album's
themes of war and loss. A image of a roiling, blood red ocean swept
across the stage as the haunting strains of "Another Brick In The Wall,
Pt. 1" rang out in the arena, as Banksy-like graffiti images were
projected on the slowly building wall.

Photos By Erik Hess

A 40-foot inflatable schoolmaster puppet then dominated the stage as
the band launched into the familiar sinister melody of "Brick Pt. 2." A
St. Paul kids choir joined in towards the end of the song, sporting
"Fear Builds Walls" t-shirts while they shamed the schoolmaster into
submission, as he slowly shrank away. Waters added an acoustic coda to
"Brick" that surely gave extra time to the busy stage hands to make some
quick adjustments to the set up, but really came across as a flat and awkward
addition to the well-known running order of the album.

He also stepped out of character for a bit to hilariously say, "Good
evening Minneapolis" (we were in St. Paul, of course), as well as
mentioning a tragic story of a young person who was killed in a violent
case of mistaken identity on the tube in London, and whose killers
(potentially the police themselves) haven't yet been brought to justice.
"If we give our government and police too much power, it's a steep and
slippery slope to tyranny," Waters warned, much to the delight of the
audience who still held tight to their anti-authoritarian beliefs, at
least for this one evening.

Waters pulled off a duet of sorts with himself on "Mother," as audio
and video footage of a young Waters playing the same song at Earls Court
in London in 1980 was projected on the screens and the wall. Waters
played guitar while he sang a double-tracked duet of the tender ode
along with the "Poor, fucked-up little Roger from all those years ago."
It was a stirring, indelible moment, and was executed flawlessly,
emphasized by a graphic, graffitied response of "No Fucking Way" when
Waters sang the notable lines, "Mother, should I trust the government?"

Vocalist Robbie Wyckoff smoothly sang the higher register parts of the touching song, as
he would throughout the performance, filling in ably for the 68-year-old Waters. Meanwhile, a giant, inflatable
Mother judgmentally watched over the proceedings from the side of the
stage, as the second B in the Orwellian graffiti slogan, 'Big Brother Is Watching You,' was crossed out
and cheekily replaced with an M.

During "Goodbye Blue Sky," the peaceful
images of birds flying on the screens were replaced by fleets of
sinister warplanes dropping their hostile cargo of crosses, dollar
signs, Russian sickles, stars of David, and McDonald's logos instead of
bombs. During the song's long, baleful outro, more and more pieces were
added to the now towering wall, leaving just a few small gaps so that
the audience could still see the band.

Photos By Erik Hess

The graphic flower illustrations from the movie version of The Wall
were repeated for "Empty Spaces," before images of writhing, half-naked
women filled the stage during a slinky, sultry version of "Young Lust."
Roger took to the front of the stage/wall to sing a forceful version of
"One Of My Turns," before a massive inflatable version of his
wife/scorpion/devil came out during "Don't Leave Me Now," which found
Roger sitting backwards on a chair, singing the number directly to a still life
portrait of a woman projected on the wall, whose eyes and mouth slowly began to bleed red then
neon streaks, before the whole wall became awash in bright colors.

A drawn out version of "Bricks Pt. 3" let the final pieces of the
wall be filled in, before Roger sang "Goodbye Cruel World" through the
last remaining gap, which was threateningly filled in right after the
song ended, leaving a complete, forbidding wall remaining throughout
intermission (timed perfectly to coincide with the split of the
double-LP). Throughout intermission, sobering images of the dead and
their brief but tragic stories were projected onto the screen, which was
prefaced by a moving note from Roger, "I would like to thank all of you
who sent in pictures of your fallen loved ones. I will remember them
all."

The second half opened with the band and Waters himself performing
"Hey You" hidden entirely behind the wall, leaving just the strong,
evocative music to carry the show instead of any added visuals. Roger
eventually made an appearance to sing "Nobody Home" from a cleverly
designed extension in the wall laid out to look like a living room,
while a giant image of him was projected alongside him. The
living room closed like a trap door as soon as the song finished,
significantly swallowed up whole by the wall itself. "Vera" featured heartwarming
images of tearful reunions between returning soldiers and the kids and
loved ones, as Roger reemerged to sing a rousing version of "Bring The
Boys Back Home," which was augmented by an anti-war screed from Dwight
D. Eisenhower himself.

"Comfortably Numb" also featured Wyckoff on vocals during the chorus,
as the menacing image of the wall slowly turned in on itself, as it
formed a wave-like image that Waters appeared to be floating in during
the majestic guitar solos of Dave Kilminster, who filled in quite nicely
for David Gilmour throughout the night (assisted by Thin Lizzy
guitarist/longtime Pink Floyd collaborator Snowy White and former SNL
bandleader G.E. Smith). Waters figuratively smashed the wall as
"Comfortably Numb" came to a dramatic conclusion, which brought a
momentary glimpse of the sun as well as cleverly transporting the band's
instruments to the front of the wall through the floor in front of the stage.

Photos By Erik Hess

The militaristic propaganda portion of the show kicked in with a
portentous version of "In The Flesh," which featured an angry, black
inflatable boar floating over the crowd (instead of Pink Floyd's far
less threatening pig). The energy level was kept high during a dynamic
rendition of "Run Like Hell," which featured taunting modern slogans like
iFollow, iLead, iProtect, iLose projected on the wall, while the boar
itself had "Everything will be OK, just keep consuming" scrawled on its
hide.

Roger shifted into the intimidating, leather-clad leader of the
Hammer disinformation party, calling out those who didn't fit into his
scheme and violently shooting at them from the stage. The madness eventually came to an end, as Waters/Pink broke
down completely during "Stop," setting up "The Trial" that would
eventually bring the wall literally crashing down in rubble on the
stage. A lone, hopeful girl clutching a batch of balloons was projected on an image
of the moon behind the stage, as the crowd cheered at the wall's
demolition and she slowly let go of the balloons.

Waters eventually came back out amidst the fallen wall to play trumpet with the full band on
"Outside The Wall," as they serenaded the roaring audience with the somewhat
optimistic coda to the album that brought the night triumphantly to a
close, and also allowed him to introduce his talented band. Waters is a
true musical visionary, and despite his longstanding feud with his Pink Floyd
band mates, he still gives his dedicated fans a spectacular show each
time he takes to the stage, breaking through his own personal wall every
night in order to share his inimitable gifts with us all once again.

Critic's Notebook:

Personal Bias: Pink Floyd's The Wall was the first double-record I ever owned, and I was thrilled to finally see it performed live in its entirety.

The Crowd: Full of old-school Pink Floyd fans, many of whom were wearing the Wall t-shirts from Waters' 2010 tour or earlier.

Overheard In The Crowd: "Did a plane really just fly right over my head?"

Random Notebook Dump: That was the best sound I'd ever heard in the Xcel Energy Center--just pristine and rich. Absolutely perfect. Kudos to their sound crew.

For those who missed it both times here (or for those of us who caught it both times), this is going to be the mother of all tour videos.
Historical notes: the old videos in "What Shall We Do Now?" ("Empty Spaces" has never been played live) and "The Trial" date to the original shows in 1980-1. I still have my grainy VHS of their 28 February 1980 Los Angeles show. Indeed, it's amazing how much of the original concert structure is still going.